Part 1 Beauty and the Sublime: Exercise 1.7: Assignment 1 Preparation

 Exercise 1.7: Assignment 1 Preparation 

This details my email to my tutor about my ideas to my approach to Assignment 1 and his reply below

Email to tutor

Hi tutor,

Thanks very much for the Landscape Welcome email and for the very
helpful information.

Looking ahead to Assignment 1 in advance of completing the earlier
exercises and performing any reserach I was considering a sublime
submission with a set of images of electricity pylons and telegraph
poles and their connecting wires.

I live in a rural area and many views are impacted by the presence
pylyons and poles. This may be a topical item given that it was just
announced that 4 specific locations have recently been selected as
places for energy companies to invest in England to reduce their
presence and impact to what has been determined areas of natural
beauty by planning to remove the visible signs by burying the cables.

My theme to be developed would be to communicate how they have
impacted the area around where I live yet how nature and human life
has adapted and attempted to overcome their presence.

One definition of sublime is "of great excellence or beauty"  and
another is "(of a person's attitude or behaviour) extreme or
unparalleled". This may allow me to stretch  Freud's interpretation of
sublime to the uncanny seeing something alien yet familiar which is
how I think modern man see's pylons etc in the prescence of rural
beauty. I'd like to attempt to examine with images how man's need in
recent times to progress has resulted in a visiblly damaged
countryside as a result, yet how local people and nature have
attempted, either successfully or unsuccessfully to overcome the
presence of poles and pylons.

My reasearch will need to look at other photographers who may have
presented a theme along these lines, how the public may have
interpreted these images, perhaps look at photographers who may have
recorded their installation.

Is this an approach do you think I can develop which both meets but
also moves further/deeper than assignment brief? I expect my approach
will vary as I move through the Part 1 exercises and I perform
research but this is my starting place which I think I'd like to
develop from. The challenge of course will be how to image this in a
way that fits my vision.

Regards,

Warren

Email reply from tutor

Hi Warren

That sounds an excellent idea; just the sort of extension to the brief we're looking for.

This fits the idea of 'voice' in the sense that developing a voice is like being a writer developing their identity as an author. For example Dickens wrote fiction but one of his underlying themes was social inequality in Victorian England.

With your suggested theme for this assignment you're 'writing' about an idea rather than simply saying 'look at this it's pretty and now look at this, this is pretty too'.

If you can realise what you've set out to do then you'll have made a strong start and set a benchmark to progress from. I look forward to seeing the results.

regards

Tutor

Next Steps
Currently I am looking at potential locations and visualising the images I'd like to attempt to create